Dienstag, 4. März 2008

IDF kills Two - The Rice has landed

Am Dienstag morgen bricht anläßlich des Besuches der amerikanischen Aussenministerin Condis Riceauflauf mit Quark mäßige Ruhe im Gazaastreifen aus: Von Seiten der Palästinenser werden vier Qassam-Raketen und zwei Mörsergranatangriffe gemeldet. Die IAF attackiert wohl eine der Qassam-Einheiten und tötet dabei zwei Menschen, darunter ein bestätigtes Hamas-Mitglied in der Nähe des Jabalia-Lagers. Zudem werden kleinere einsätze ohne Casualities gemeldet. Durchaus erwähnenswert ist die Auffälligkeit das nahezu keine Fatahisten in den derzeitigen Kämpfen eine Rolle spielen. Weder als Täter noch als Opfer. Im Vorfeld hatten Fatahisten noch munter mitgeschossen... wenn da nicht mal wieder böse Mächte im Spiel waren...*** "Meanwhile, Israel allowed dozens of trucks carrying food and medical supply to enter the Strip through Kerem Shalom Crossing. Three truckloads were donated by the Jordanian government, and another two were ordered by the Palestinian health minister from the Israeli Teva pharmaceutical conglomerate. Also Tuesday, official censorship was lifted on the fact that a Katyusha rocket fired in recent days from the Gaza Strip struck near the home of Public Security Minister Avi Dichter in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon."Der Besuch von Condi Riceauflauf mit Quark steht unter einem bösen Stern. Der bereits unten verlinkte Artikel mach Schlagzeilen: The Bush administration, caught out by the rise of Hamas, embarked on a secret project for the armed overthrow of the Islamist government in Gaza, it emerged yesterday. Vanity Fair reports in its April edition that President George Bush and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, signed off on a plan for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to remove the Hamas authorities in Gaza. The plan called for Washington's allies in the region to funnel arms and salaries to Fatah fighters who would lead a rising against Hamas. Zudem wird der Besuch von unüblicherweise statt findenden Verhaftungswellen in der Westbank kontaminiert: 16 Verhaftungen Westbankweit. Die einschätzung von Tyaseer Khalid [DFLP] Riceauflauf mit Quark habe "nichts zu verkaufen" ist durchaus richtig: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday called for Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to return to peace talks and said that the longer negotiations were suspended, "the more it is a victory for those who don't want to see a two-state solution." Rice, speaking to reporters aboard her plane as she headed to Cairo, called for an end to the latest round of violence between Israel and the militant Islamic organization Hamas. [...] "I'm saying that we want the violence to stop," Rice said. "Call it what you will." Plump. [...] Rice said during talks in Cairo that only negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority could lead to lasting peace and brushed aside Egyptian calls for a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza. "Negotiations ought to resume as soon as possible," Rice told reporters in Cairo, where she consulted Egyptian leaders on how to defuse the Gaza crisis and appease Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "I am going to have discussions with the parties about how we try to keep this process going, given that obviously there are going to be spoilers," she said before flying to Tel Aviv and then going to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Morgends so, mittags so und in Israel "macht doch was ihr wollt". Barak kommt unterdessen auf recht "inovative" Ideen: Legal experts in the government say it is difficult to decide whether Israel can move Palestinian civilians from areas in the northern Gaza Strip where rockets are fired against Israel. They say international law is based on precedents, and in Israel's case the matter is in many ways unprecedented. Defense Minister Ehud Barak had requested legal advice from Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and the military advocate general on the possibility of moving Palestinian civilians from the rocket-launching areas. Ob damit etwa ein "ins Meer treiben" gemeint ist? Hm? Nein, nicht ganz.Olmerts und Livnis statements gedeutet nehmen diese bald selbst die M16ns in die Hand und stürmen Gaza ganz alleine: Foreign Minsiter Tzipi Livni told foreign diplomats based in Israel on Tuesday that Israel would reoccupy the Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary, though it prefers not to do so, the Foreign Ministry said. "We cannot afford this kind of extreme Islamic state controlled by Hamas," Livni said, according to a ministry statement released Tuesday. "Israel evacuated Gaza not in order to come back, but we might find ourselves in a situation where we have no choice," Livni said. [...] Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared Monday that the operation in the Gaza Strip is not a singular event. "The operation is not a one-time event: neither in us going in, or us pulling out." Speaking before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Olmert said that "everything is on the table - ground operations, air [strikes] and special operations." Derweil zerschlägt Barak eigene Aussagen zur Dauer des Konflikts: "The operation we have been conducting is not an instant solution." [Wohl wieder so an die 7 Jahre-solution? and no end in sigth?] Zudem versuchen die Politiker über allerlei abweichende Themen bei Riceauflauf mit Quark zu punkten: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel has the might and power to defend itself against any threat from Iran, indicating a willingness to use military force if necessary against Tehran's nuclear ambitions. [...] Jerusalem is disappointed with the latest round of sanctions against Iran passed late Monday night by the Security Council, a government source said Monday. Israel sees them as soft, especially with regard to the list of individuals and institutions on which the sanctions would be imposed. [Nach der Überprüfung stellt man fest das eine militärische Lösung durch den UN-Sicherheitsrat nicht in Betracht gezogen wird.] + Israel says Hezbollah is rearming and has an arsenal including 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern Lebanon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council in a new report Tuesday. While Ban's report did not confirm Israel's claim, the UN chief reiterated his concern about Hezbollah's public statements and persistent reports pointing to breaches of a UN arms embargo, which bans weapons transfers to the militant Shiite Islamic militia. [Ban-Bericht findet man unten.] In Ost-Jerusalem werden die Polizeikräfte massiv aufgestockt da man Ausschreitungen für/gegen/um Riceauflauf mit Quark befürchtet... Es lebe die Militarisierung!

Nehemia Shtrasler: In this situation, hatred triumphs and the only hope is the desire to take revenge. The rocket launchers are thus the heroes who gain the people's sympathy, and support for Hamas is not getting any smaller - it's growing. So there is no escape but to talk to Hamas. We cannot choose our enemies. We embraced Yasser Arafat after saying for dozens of years (in the words of Yitzhak Rabin) that "we'll meet the PLO only on the battlefield."

*** "I wanted to see their bodies, to say good-bye to them for the last time," says Mohammed Abu Shabak, whose children Jacqueline and Iyad were killed Sunday during the Israel Defense Forces' operation in Jabalya. But Hamas told Abu Shabak, a Fatah activist in exile in Ramallah, that if he tried to come to the Gaza Strip funeral, he would be killed. Hamas militants also fired at his relatives' car, while they were announcing his children's death in Jabalya. Ob es sich hier um eine absichtliche Tötung handelt? Ich glaube nicht, so oder so, ein Kriebsverbrechen.